


Oh My Papa

by sartiebodyshots



Category: Falling Skies
Genre: AU, Gen, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 03:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sartiebodyshots/pseuds/sartiebodyshots
Summary: Mike survives the sanctuary, and is able to reconnect with Rick.





	Oh My Papa

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Characters Who Deserved Better day for Falling Skies Week!

Rick doesn’t want to go to the movie night.  He hates spending time around the humans.  They’re cruel and violent and they’re always so loud.  His real family will be here soon.  They’ll save him.

For now, he must endure spending time with the humans, so he sits in the darkened auditorium.  He’s wedged between his human father and Ben.  Being near Ben isn’t as bad as being near the others; he’s not human either.  

Rick stares up at the screen, at least until his human father nudges him.  He looks up at him, for reasons that he can’t quite determine.  His human father’s smile is the same kind of nervous smile that he always has these days.  

Rick and Ben make all the humans nervous.  Good.  If Ben can see what Rick sees, he’ll go with Rick back to the skitters.  That’d be nice.  

“Remember when we went to see this in theaters, Rick?” Dad says, soft but Rick can still hear him as if he was speaking normal human volume.  “Your mom was still with us, and we got popcorn, extra salty, just the way you like it.”

Flashes: the taste of salt on Rick’s tongue, Mom ruffling his hair as they walked out of the theater, Dad laughing beside him as something happens on screen.  It cuts through the dull clarity that’s surrounded him since his harness was forcibly removed.  

The emotion makes Rick inhale sharply, eyes widening.  Oh god, the things that happened.  Being taken, the fear he had felt when he was face down on the machine, the unending numbness of being harnessed for months.  

If he wants to be taken again, then it’s nothing to be afraid of.  The skitters are going to win, and if the skitters are his real family, then his family can win and he can be safe.  Everything that happens to him can be his choice.  It can be what he wants.

But.  

Rick realizes there are tears in his eyes.  That’s new.  He realizes that he doesn’t know what he feels, not at all.  The certainty that he wants to be found by the skitters is gone.  

Rick feels more than he’s felt since he was taken.  What he’s feeling is harder to determine.  

“ _ Dad _ ,” Rick’s voice wavers, is gummy in his throat.  “Dad.”

“Rick?” Dad says.

“Dad, I’m so scared,” Rick says, burying his face in his dad’s jacket to hide his tears.  

It takes Dad a fraction of a moment, but he hugs Rick back.  The contact makes Rick feel something that he had forgotten.  Safe.  

“I’m going to keep you safe, Rick.  I promise,” Dad says.  

Rick pulls back just enough to look his dad in the eye.

“You can’t promise that.  You can’t,” Rick says.  “You don’t know what they- you don’t know what they can do.”

“Okay.  Then here’s a promise that I can keep.  I will fight to my dying breath to make sure that you make it through this thing.  But I need you to fight, too, to fight whatever it is they did to you,” Dad says.  “That’s how we both make it through this.”

Rick swallows hard.  He wants to go back, to be swept up in his certainty that the skitters are family.  But he can’t, so he nods.  

* * *

Mike can’t believe they really made it.  The espheni are gone.  Every last one of those bastards is dead.  There had been times when he hadn’t truly believed they would ever make it to this day.  

“Hey, Dad,” Rick interrupts his reverie.  He’s always a welcome interruption, after everything he’s been through.  Being one of two or three spiked kids around around hasn’t been easy.  “Do you have a minute?”

“Always, Rick,” Mike says, following his son to a slightly more secluded spot.  “Are you okay?”

“Thank you,” Rick says, not quite making eye contact.  “For rescuing me, and not giving up on me.  I know it wasn’t easy.”

“I would never give up on you, Rick, and I needed you just as much,” Mike says.  

Rick presses his lips together and finally looks at him.  “When you first found me, I wanted to go back to the skitters.  If you hadn’t been there… I would’ve.  If you had given up on me, I would’ve.” 

Mike had known that, deep down.  Those first few weeks, he had been terrified that he had only gotten his son’s body back from the skitters.  Hearing Rick admit it- and for him to be able to admit it- is a whole other thing and makes Mike tear up a little bit.  

“I’m glad that you stuck around,” Mike finally says.

One thing that Mike has learned in the last few years is that there’s no sense keeping things in because you never know how much time you have.  War made him brave in ways he had never expected, so he pulls Rick close.  

“Without you, there wouldn’t’ve been a point in winning the war.  You saved me just as much.  I promise you,” Mike says.

Rick hugs him back.  “You promised you’d keep me safe.  And you did.”

“Things are going to be good now.  Hard sometimes, still, but good,” Mike says.

“I’m… excited,” Rick says, pulling away.  “Also, I’m not going to be home until late tonight.”

“You’ve got big plans, hmm?” Mike teases gently.

“Dad!” Rick protests, starting to flush just a little.

“Oooh, so you’ve got  _ important  _ plans.  I take it you’ll be spending the night with young Ben, then?” Mike says.  

Rick nudges Mike, rolling his eyes and looking the picture of an indigent teenage boy.  It’s a nice change from the haggard warrior that he had become.  They can have a real life now, and that’s more than Mike had ever dared hoped for.


End file.
